


Ms. Adventure

by orphan_account



Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-12
Updated: 2019-10-12
Packaged: 2020-12-09 12:31:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20994845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: As they often do, a family road trip goes awry. This is the brief story of a mother and daughter caught in a blizzard in their rental car atop a high pass. It's also a kind of travelogue.





	Ms. Adventure

I was so much older then. I’m younger than that now.  
Bob Dylan, “My Back Pages”

It was a dark and stormy night. No, really. All day, dark clouds had been gathering in the far corners of the endless Western sky, and now, at just past ten and just past the last outpost for a hundred miles, they burst. Lashing rain turned to a blizzard as the rental car wound its way over the hills. The highway they were driving is called the loneliest in America, and that night it was living up to its name. The only other people were hardy locals, and they were few and far between. How they managed to keep their massive pickup trucks on the road was a mystery rivaled only by enigma of why they were out there to begin with.

Diana was in the passenger’s seat of the car doing her best to keep her mom calm. Still too young to drive, she had assigned herself to moral support. She was also too young to have a healthy fear of freezing to death. Sure, the greasy dinner she’d picked at in the pale green light of the diner in town was heavy in her stomach, and her hands were twisting in her lap, but, all in all, she was unfazed. The gravity of the situation was not lost on her mom, though. Intermittent curses were coming from the driver’s seat.

Outside, the snow swirled so thickly that the world was reduced to dancing white. Diana couldn’t help but watch it, following flakes to make patterns. A blizzard seen all at once is dizzying, but it’s possible to focus on a detail, thereby freezing the entire picture in a crystalline still. In the chaos, the road vanished entirely. The only way to find the road was to follow the reflectors alongside it. They blinked dimly against a drop-off of unknown height. After each one, Diana and her mother held their breath, only exhaling when the next was in sight.

Time passed. Distance must have passed, too, although it was impossible to tell. Eventually, the reflectors were framed by drifts of snow instead of darkness as the land flattened. At least if they slipped into a ditch, they wouldn’t have gone far. Finally, a sign appeared: they were ten miles from their destination. Diana hadn’t realised just how tightly her mom had been holding herself until her death grip on the steering wheel slackened. Flexing her white knuckles, her mom broke the silence:

“We are never telling your dad about this.”

Diana couldn’t help but laugh. She thought her recent brush with hypothermia had earned her an inappropriate reaction. _Seriously_, she thought, _we almost fell off a cliff_. If she had been in a more profound mood, she might have longed for the day when the memory of this night would soften, fear and wonder dulling until it was just another anecdote in a lifetime of anecdotes. She would’ve pictured the day when they _would_ tell her dad about this, when all of them would laugh about it over Thanksgiving dinner, warm and safe. Relief and exhaustion had simplified her desires, though. She wanted a soft bed and some edible food. Contemplation would have to come later. 

**Author's Note:**

> This story is based on real events that I've fictionalized. I wanted to share a memory or two on here, even if only for myself. Hope you enjoy.


End file.
